To me the more interesting thing is that the Chinese government is making such a big deal about a relatively unknown app such as Telegram, but isn't saying or doing anything at all about iMessage, which is supposed to be end-to-end encrypted (by default even, unlike Telegram).

Are you telling me that those same lawyers don't have iPhones and don't use iMessage even more than they do Telegram? Because I don't believe that.

So either the Chinese government has just recognized there's nothing they can do about banning Apple's iMessage - or Apple already provides them with a way to look at iMessages.

I'm inclining to believe it's more the latter.